» Anna Fusek
Recorder, Piano, Violin
Photo Gallery
(c) Felix Broede
Biography
Anna Fusek is a phenomenon lauded equally by audience and press. Born in Prague and raised in Germany, she crosses musical boundaries as well receiving international acclaim: She has conquered concert halls all over the world playing no less than three different instruments. As a soloist she tours with renowned orchestras such as Venice Baroque Orchestra or Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Recorder player Anna Fusek has secured her part in today's musical life. Much to concert goers' surprise and delight though she lays aside the recorder while they are applauding in order to pick up the violin to continue her performance on that instrument. She has also appeared numerous times on stage as a concert pianist and so she is pursuing the baroque tradition of the versatile musician.
In Jan Bosse's much lauded production of "Calisto" by Cavalli her versatility was hailed by audiences both at Theater Basel and the Frankfurt Opera: In the role of Amor she alluringly bowed the strings of her violin, winded love melodies and jinxed the ensemble by playing the piano. Audiences were spellbound.
Her huge range benefits all of her projects: The gracious musician inspires through her joy of playing and deep musicality, as the French Muse Baroque (le magazine de la musique baroque) described a concert: “really incredible performance of Anna Fusek that sent electric shock waves through the evening.“
Anna Fusek was born in Prague in 1981. Since her fifth, sixth respectively her eighth year she plays violin, recorder and piano. She was first tutored by Corinna Guzinski in Dortmund and Michael Wessel-Therhorn in Münster.
She studied with Han Tol in Rotterdam and Christoph Huntgeburth in Berlin, where she made her Artistic Diploma in 2005. She was rewarded DAAD scholarship to continue her studies of historical pianos with EdoardoTorbianelli and recorder (ensemble) with Conrad Steinmann at the ScholaCantorum in Basel, Switzerland. In 2008 she returned to Berlin to study baroque violin with IrmgardHuntgeburth at the University of Arts and she finished it in 2013 with an Artistic Diploma.
Moreover she studied Philosophy and Musicology at the Humboldt University Berlin (Diploma MA 2005) and she did an Acting class (Summer Program 2009) at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
She was rewarded 2nd prize and prize of the International Youth Jury at the International Recorder Competition in 2006 in Feldkirch, Austria. She was multiple prize-winner of the national German Youth Competition “Jugendmusiziert” on all three of her instruments.
As soloist she played concerts in the following concert halls: Musikverein Wien, Carnegie Hall New York, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Berlin, Théatre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, Gran TeatrodelLiceu Barcelona, Herkulessaal Munich and Rudolfinum Prague. She worked with Andrea Marcon, Christian Curnyn, Michael Sanderling, Richard Dindo, Andreas Dresen, Magdalena Kožená, Sara Mingardo und Reinhold Friedrich, and with orchestras such as Venice Baroque Orchestra, AkademiefürAlteMusik Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Bremer Philharmoniker, Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 Prague, Il Pomo d'oro, Baroque orchestra La Cetra Basel, Baroque orchestra Elbipolis Hamburg, Cappella Mediterranea, Kammerakademie Potsdam and Ensemble Oriol.
As actress and musician she played in 2010-2012 the part of "Amor" in Francesco Cavalli's baroque opera "La Calisto" at Theater Basel and Frankfurter Oper (Stage Director: Jan Bosse).
As Musical Assistant to Andrea Marcon and Sergio Azzolini, correpetitor and recorder player Anna Fusek was involved in opera productions at Basel Theater, Potsdam Palace Theater and Goethe Theater during the Handel Festival Halle. Moreover she was assistant to stage director Ingo Kerkhof at KölnerOper and she has been an intern at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin to stage director Jan Bosse.
Radio and TV recordings for MDR, NDR, SchweizerFernsehen, ČeskáTelevize, ORF, Radio de la Suisse Romande, Radio 98.7wfmt Chicago and recordings for "Deutsche Grammophon", "EMI" and "PanClassics".
„It was the Vivaldi Double Concerto that made the strongest impression among the works on the first half and featured violinist Anna Fusek in her second role as a recorder player. A fine match for the vivacious Avital, Fusek performed her part in the concerto with effortless virtuosity and with a congenial matching of phrases with the mandolin — the entire concerto a highlight in an always engaging program.“
- Kenneth Delong, Calgary Herald, 9.3.2015
„An event of the highest caliber. … I was especially impressed by Anna Fusek and her virtuosic mastery on the recorder. … Telemann’s Concerto in E minor for Recorder and Flute, TWV 52:e1, was a singular moment of the program. Fusek and Huntgeburth were extraordinary in their recorder and flute duo. The ornamentations were perfectly coordinated as the details of the trills were of one mind. The synchrony between them was uncanny. Fusek had such a sweet sound and impeccable technique that resonated in my memories long after the event.“
- Theodore Bell, Culture Spot Los Angeles, 5.3.2011
„As an excellent soloist [with the Bremer Philharmoniker] Anna Fusek played on the recorder with supremely clear declamation and touching sensibility. Vivaldi was tremendously enthralling that way.“
- Michael Pitz-Grewenig, Bremer Nachrichten, 20.12.2011
„The Venice Baroque Orchestra gave an engaging performance of music by Vivaldi, Geminiani and Telemann at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall. … The solo performances, especially by recorder player Anna Fusek and lutenist Ivano Zanenghi (whose flamboyant flair was entertainment in itself) were outstanding. Fusek’s smaller of her two recorders comically imitated bird calls and other florid novelties in Vivaldi’s Il Cardellino (The Goldfinch). … The most divine musical gem of the evening was the slow movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto for sopranino and lute, whose lovely melodies floated blissfully over a trembling soft-string accompaniment.“
- Alexandra Ivanoff, Sunday’s Zaman, Istanbul, 20.12.2011
„Especially the Telemann-Concerto in e minor, during which Anna Fusek swapped the violin for the recorder to enthral the public with her captivating playing...“
- Hamburger Abendblatt, 5.8.2011
„Huntgeburth was joined by Anna Fusek on recorder for Telemann’s E minor Concerto for Recorder and Flute, a work that builds entire edifices out of busy, form-following-function passagework; the soloists provided limpid, percolating proficiency.“
- Matthew Guerrieri, The Boston Globe, 15.3.2011
„Berlin orchestra takes the Folly by storm. … But the audience charmer came at the end — a striking version of Telemann’s Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E Minor. Flutist Huntgeburth and recorder player Anna Fusek performed superbly in a dazzling series of virtuosic passages.“
- Timothy McDonald, The Kansas City Star, 13.3.2011
„The Akademie für Alte Musik is a magnificent chameleon of an ensemble.… Mr. Huntgeburth was more outgoing — and was matched in that quality by Anna Fusek, a recorder player — in Telemann’s lively, Gypsy-inflected Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E minor.“
- Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, 9.3.2011
„Comfortably surrounded by one of the best Baroque orchestras of the world [Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin] – what masterly rendering of the Telemann double concerto, thousands of bravos for flutists Anna Fusek and Christoph Huntgeburth! ...”
- Pierre Degott, resmusica.com, 25.1.2010
„But it was really the incredible performance of Anna Fusek that sent electric shock waves through the evening. Glittering, whimsical, precise and distinctly articulated the violinist-flutist made perfect use of a beautiful score, thus enthralling the audience (for this occasion leaving the ranks of the second violins!) faster than can be described, with almost electrical purity of her instrument's sound.”
- Anne-Lise Nguyen, Muse Baroque, le magazine de la musique baroque 2009
„To deal with the next drop-out the orchestra can in case of emergency make do without a stand-in soloist. Anna Fusek, violinist in the orchestra, changed instruments for the Concerto RV 443 to take up a tiny recorder, a sopranino, and got cheering and flowers from the audience with her masterly solo playing.”
- Bela Luttmer, de Volkskrant, 18.11.2009
„...or also Anna Fusek's brilliant interpretation of the Concerto for recorder RV 443 which enthused the audience. It would only have been a little step further and Anna Fusek would have upstaged Magdalena Kožená in this celebration of Vivaldi.”
- Xavier Cester, AVUI, Madrid, 14.11.2009
„The soloist of the Concerto in C major RV 443 that also played the violin in the orchestra deserves to be pointed out for her playing of the Largo in which she created an impressive atmosphere with her most commendable masterly breathing technique.”
- Inigo Arbiza, Noticias de Guipuzkoa, San Sebastián, 10.11.2009
„Anna Fusek who had already distinguished herself interpreting the violin-part, revealed herself to be a truly remarkable recorder soloist in the Concerto in C major.”
- Xavier Pujol, El Pais (Edición Cataluña), 9.11.2009
„Prague-born virtuoso Anna Fusek on her recorder called flautino not only knew how to realize the sweet dream of love in the Aria from the opera La verita in cimento but also enthused the audience with dazzling bravura in the sparkling C major Concerto for flautino, strings and basso continuo.”
- idnes, Prag, 3.11.2009
„The evening not only belonged to singer Magdalena Kožená...
Among the musicians of the orchestra the Czech-born violinist Anna Fusek distinguished herself by taking up another instrument for two pieces – a sopranino recorder that she played most brilliantly. First she was heard as the singer's partner in an aria, then she played Vivaldi's famous Concerto in C major. With her tiny flute she mastered technically demanding passages as well as cantilenas with incredible levity and evoked cheering with her musicality.”
- Petr Veber, Hospodarske noviny, Prag, 2.11.2009
„Young violinist Anna Fusek achieved an admirable feat by taking up the flautino and proving that she handles it as expertly as the bow.“
- tutti magazín.cz, 2.11.2009
„Out of the big family of recorders the sopranino, soprano and alto as well as the voiceflute which is situated between alto and tenor and can imitate the human voice so convincingly were to be heard. Anna Fusek and Inga Maria Klaucke played the instruments interchangingly, as in heaven.”
- Matthias Müller, Märkische Allgemeine, 26.05.2009
Upcoming Concerts
12.12.2020
Dresden
Vivaldi recorder concerto
with Dresdner Festspielorchester
14.02.2021, 18h00
Epiphanienkirche Berlin
chamber music with Regina Gleim